"Jacqueline" wrote in message
...
I have a bed in front of my house (part sun, northern exposure) where I've
tried some annuals that are supposed to reseed (marigolds, sweet allysum,
coreopsis, and something else I can't remember now), but nothing ever
comes
back. I'm wondering if there's something I should be doing to encourage
them, short of collecting seeds & sowing them the next spring.

Don't know about the annuals you have, but I've had mixed luck with
re-seeding miniature snapdragons. I let them die in the fall and don't touch
them all winter. They are tiny tiny for the first few months (May-June), and
it's tough to not pull them when you weed. You have to be careful where you
tread, early in the spring. They do come up in masses, however -- so much
that I need to thin them. They were evening growing in the cracks of my
walkway. Where there wasn't much light, they don't grow fast. Some didn't
bloom until mid September! Also, I'm in Montreal and the winters are hard
and long.

There were some random portulaca that came back, which I didn't expect. My
dill always comes back without any trouble -- but I let some of it go to
seed for that reason.

This year, I am thinking it's worth it to go and buy the flowering annuals
(already blooming in May) from a greenhouse -- only the Pansies/Violets seem
to re-seed (biennial) and bloom early enough for my preference. It's a sense
of accomplishment when the snapdragons do bloom from reseeding, but the
summer-long wait for the flowers as well as the extra care with weeding
doesn't seem worth it to me (anymore).

Cris
Montreal Quebec